A couple of months ago it was announced that Tony and Ridley Scott were developing a prequel to Alien, with Carl Eric Rinsch attached to direct. However a few days later it emerged that 20th Century Fox, who own the xemomorph franchise, hadn’t signed off on this project and that they might only be interested in making it with Ridley directing.
Well, according to a report in Variety, Fox might be getting their wish, as the trade paper is reporting that Fox is now officially working on the prequel with Ridley attached to return as director.
They’ve also hired Jon Spaights to write the screenplay, who’s gained an impressive reputation, despite not having one of his scripts reach theatres yet. However Keanu Reeves is attached to his sci-fi script, Shadow 19, and the star also assigned him to write the movie Passengers, while he’s also got gigs scripting The Darkest Hour for Fox, Children Of Mars for Disney, and St. George And The Dargon for Sony.
There’s still no word on exactly what the Alien prequel will be about, although there’s plenty to work with, as we have no idea where the crashed alien spaceship comes from that the crew of the Nostromo investigates in Alien, or many of the other mysteries of acid-blooded xenomorphs – including where they actually come from originally.